


synchronicity

by copperwings



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bodyswap, Fluff and Crack, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, but then it got a bit more serious, mentions of whale penises, slightly ADHD JJ, well this was supposed to be crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-02 22:09:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13327374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperwings/pseuds/copperwings
Summary: The world is spinning out of focus and Yuri steps forward to grasp the edge of the counter, feeling even more sick when his reflection does the same. Only it’s nothisreflection. Yuri leans closer to the mirror and raises a hand to run it through his hair, watches as the same happens in the mirror. The hair under his touch is too short, and the undercut feels weird as his fingertips graze the short hair at the back. Yuri traces his finger over the thick, dark eyebrows and features that are not his own. Blue eyes instead of green, short dark hair instead of long blond strands. His reflection stares at him with a shocked expression.This can’t be happening. Thishas to besome sort of a nightmare or an advanced virtual reality experience, because all evidence currently points to Yuri residing in Jean-Jacques Leroy’s body. Whichcannotbe happening.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was inspired by [lusciouswhiteflame’s Pliroy body swap art](https://lusciouswhiteflame.tumblr.com/post/169309027519/pliroy-personality-exchange-also-the-outfit) on tumblr.

 

Yuri wakes up to a strange sensation.

There’s something covering his eyes. Yuri claws at his face blindly and rips off a sleeping mask, tossing it aside.

_Where the fuck did that come from?_

He sits up on the bed and notices that the mattress is more springy than usual, almost like a trampoline. The sheets feel weird as well, like they’re more slippery than they used to be. The room around him is dark, but even in the lack of light he’s pretty sure it’s not his room.

Yuri slides over to the edge of the bed that feels more like a bouncy castle. He comes across a nightstand and he can just make out the shape of a lamp. He fumbles for the light switch and after many frustrating seconds finds it at the base of the lamp. He flicks the light on.

The room illuminates in a soft yellow glow and Yuri looks around in growing panic.

This is definitely not his room. How did he end up in here? He clearly recalls going to sleep in his own bed.

His eyes slide over to some framed pictures that hang on the wall, and he squints at them, tossing the silky covers aside.

Yuri absently rubs his arm as he walks over to the wall, and then he looks down. Walking feels weird, like there’s something wrong with his legs. But that’s not all.

He’s shirtless, even though he distinctly remembers going to bed with a t-shirt on. The shirtless state is not as alarming as the state of his skin, though. Yuri stares down. His skin is darker than it used to be, even in the dim light of the nightstand lamp. But that’s not the worst part. There are tattoos on his arms. Yuri’s eyes spread wide as he carefully traces the outlines of the tattoos.

They’re not just _any_ tattoos.

They’re the same exact tattoos than the ones that Jean-Jacques fucking Leroy has. Yuri’s eyes focus on the photos on the wall. Jean-Jacques Leroy, who is staring at him from the photos, surrounded by various other blue-eyed people who look like they’re related to him.

Yuri feels cold sweat clamming his skin as he walks to the first door he finds and opens it. It’s a walk-in closet filled with clothes, so he backs out and tries the next one.

He finds the bathroom light switch on the left and flicks the light on.

Yuri steps in front of the mirror and blinks, disbelieving. He slowly raises a hand.

In the reflection, JJ raises a hand, mirroring his movements.

The world is spinning out of focus and Yuri steps forward to grasp the edge of the counter, feeling even more sick when his reflection does the same. Only it’s not _his_ reflection. Yuri leans closer to the mirror and raises a hand to run it through his hair, watches as the same happens in the mirror. The hair under his touch is too short, and the undercut feels weird as his fingertips graze the short hair at the back. Yuri traces his finger over the thick, dark eyebrows and features that are not his own. Blue eyes instead of green, short dark hair instead of long blond strands. His reflection stares at him with a shocked expression.

This can’t be happening. This _has to be_ some sort of a nightmare or an advanced virtual reality experience, because all evidence currently points to Yuri residing in Jean-Jacques Leroy’s body. Which _cannot_ be happening.

He pinches himself hard on the arm, then slaps himself across the cheek. The pain is very real, as is the sensory information from his fingertips as he runs them across the now-stinging cheekbone.

Yuri stares at his reflection in horror, fighting a wave of nausea that threatens to turn his insides upside down. He is in Jean-Jacques Leroy’s body.

_He is in Jean-Jacques Leroy’s body._

How did this happen? What the fuck is going on?

Then he comes to think of something.

If he is currently in JJ’s body, where the fuck is JJ?

Yuri steps out of the bathroom and his eyes flick around the room. The clock on the nightstand tells him it’s 2 in the morning. He spots JJ’s phone on the desk across the room and goes to grab it.

There is a screen lock pattern. _Of-fuckin-course_ there is a screen lock pattern. Yuri stares at the nine dots on the screen for a moment and then purses his lips, tapping his finger against the side of the phone. He absently notes that his teeth feel weird, like they’re bigger than what he’s used to. Fucking giant-tooth Leroy. After a moment’s contemplation, Yuri draws the letter J across the dots and the home screen pops up. Yuri shakes his head and snorts. It figures that the asshat would have his initial as his screen lock, because his initials are plastered all over his entire property from his clothing to his luggage.

There are notifications popping up on the screen, and Yuri keeps swiping them off as he tries to navigate the phone. The operating system is not one he’s used to, so it takes a while to find the dial pad. Yuri types his own phone number with +7 at the beginning and presses the call button.

The phone rings two times before his own voice answers.

“Hello?”

Yuri blinks, because he’s hearing his own voice at the other end of the phone, but it’s speaking English with a Canadian accent.

“Yuri?” Yuri’s voice says in the other end. He sounds scared. “Is that you?”

“JJ?” Yuri asks, and then almost slaps a hand over his mouth when the name comes out in JJ’s voice but with a thick Russian accent. It sounds different than listening to JJ talking, because now JJ’s voice resonates not only in his ears, but his chest and his head as well.

Yuri tries not to think about it too much, because it kind of makes him want to suffocate himself with a pillow.

“What is going on?” JJ asks, and Yuri can’t fucking get over how weird it is that he’s hearing his own voice but laced with a different accent.

“I don’t know, you fucking tell me!” Yuri snaps. Again, JJ’s voice but in his own accent makes Yuri want to bite his tongue out. Or JJ’s tongue out? He blinks. It’s such a mindfuck.

“I woke up in the morning and I was here, and suddenly I was small, and so fucking _blond_ ,” JJ says, sounding panicked. “I couldn’t figure out the phone, or anything else, because your laptop has a Cyrillic keyboard and everything is in Russian!”

Yuri wrinkles his brow. “What time is it there?” he asks, because he has other things on his mind right now than figuring out the time difference between Toronto and St. Petersburg.

“It’s ten in the morning,” JJ says. “At least the numbers are the same,” he mumbles weakly.

“You,” Yuri starts, then closes his mouth. “Well, _I’m_ supposed to be at the rink at noon.”

“Priorities, Plisetsky,” JJ groans. “Man, you sound so weird, though. It’s like I’m talking to my evil Russian twin or something.”

Yuri frowns, his focus momentarily pinpointed to his own voice in the other end that’s spitting out JJ’s words. It _is_ weird. Does he really sound that whiny from the outside, or is it just JJ’s personality changing his voice for the worse?

He shakes his head, snapping back to attention.

“Whatever, jackass,” Yuri snaps. “Priorities, right?”

Yuri stares around in JJ’s room. It looks like an ordinary room, for someone who is egotistical and loves looking at their own face. There are posters of skaters on the walls, and some of them have JJ himself, on proud display all over the walls. Yuri scowls when he spots one of himself, from the Winter Olympics some years ago. Why on earth would JJ have a poster of Yuri on his wall, though?

He shakes his head again.

“We need to figure out what has happened,” Yuri says.

“Okay, so what did you do last night before going to bed?” JJ asks.

Yuri thinks back. It was just a normal night, a routine night among others. He ate a snack, took a shower, brushed his teeth and went to bed.

“That’s it?” JJ asks after Yuri lists his activities.

Yuri rolls his eyes. “Well I don’t think jerking off makes that much of a difference, because I’ve jerked off hundreds of times before and that didn’t magically transfer me into someone else’s body before.”

JJ shuffles in the other end. “Ew, fuck, I’ve been walking around the apartment and touched things and I bet you fucking didn’t wash your hands afterwards. That’s disgusting.” There is a clanging noise and then the sound of running water and splashing.

Yuri laughs, until he recalls that he is, in fact, in another body that may have been engaged in similar activities. He lodges the phone between his shoulder and his ear and goes to wash his hands just in case. He avoids looking in the mirror.

“I didn’t jack off last night so _you_ don’t need to wash _your_ hands,” JJ says, and Yuri can practically _hear_ the eye-roll from the other side of the world. “Or, um, _my_ hands. Whatever.”

Yuri sighs and sits on the bed. “Is your family home?” he asks, suddenly afraid that someone will walk in and start asking difficult questions, like _why do you have a Russian accent all of a sudden?_

“Yeah,” JJ says.

“I suggest we get to the bottom of this so I can sneak the fuck out before they wake up,” Yuri mutters.

“How are we going to do that?” JJ asks.

There is a meow and a hiss from the other end.

“Your cat looks confused,” JJ says. “When I first woke up he came to sniff me and then hissed and ran away.”

“She,” Yuri says. “Potya is a girl.” _A good girl who can tell the person in the apartment is not Yuri even when he looks exactly like Yuri_ , he doesn’t add.

“Whatever.”

“You need to feed her,” Yuri says. “Give her a can of food from the cupboard that’s on the left side of the fridge. Her bowl is under the table.”

There are rummaging sounds and JJ muttering something under his breath. “There’s like twelve different kinds of cans in here, and I can’t read the Cyrillic alphabet.”

“JJ, there’s a fucking picture of a cat on the label,” Yuri sighs. He looks around himself in the unfamiliar room. “Maybe we should video chat?”

Yuri doesn’t want to look at his own face staring back at him, but it’s starting to look like there is no other option.

“I don’t know how to use your phone so you’re gonna have to figure it out,” JJ says.

“I will,” Yuri snaps. He ends the call in a huff and searches the phone’s apps, and finally manages to make a video call.

Staring at his own face is weird.

“Whoa,” JJ says, and Yuri watches his own eyebrows rise in surprise.

_So weird._

“So, show me the cupboard,” Yuri says. Anything else than staring at his own face right now sounds better.

JJ turns the phone, and Yuri spots the cat food on the third shelf.

Once Potya has been fed, a silence falls between them. Neither of them is looking at the phone’s display except in quick glances.

“I’m fucking freaked out,” JJ says and runs his fingers through his hair, then startles. “My hair is so fucking long,” he says miserably. “How do you live with this? It’s in the way all the time.”

“Just put it into a braid or something,” Yuri grumbles, rolling his eyes.

JJ looks at the phone’s camera then, incredulous. “Do I look like I know how to braid hair?”

Yuri sighs. “Well put in in a ponytail or something.”

JJ grins. “How about I cut it? I saw scissors somewhere…”

“Don’t you fucking touch my hair,” Yuri snaps.

JJ laughs, and it’s yet another thing on the list of things that are weird right now, because it’s undeniably JJ’s laughter, but it’s coming out in Yuri’s voice. “Fine, I won’t touch your hair.” Yuri watches him blow a strand off his face and then brush the hair behind his ears. Yuri never wears his hair pushed behind his ears like that, but under the circumstances it’s better than the alternative.

Yuri thinks of something. “Maybe we should show each other around? See if we spot something that might explain this… _thing_ that’s going on.”

“Sure.” JJ turns the phone so Yuri can see his own apartment, the bed looking as messy as ever and his clothes and magazines scattered on the floor. JJ walks through the kitchen and the living room and finally into the bathroom.

“I don’t see anything that looks different,” Yuri says.

“Ooh, what’s this?” JJ asks, picking something up from the counter. He holds it so Yuri can’t see what the item in his hand is.

“Are you going through my stuff?” Yuri growls. “Stop it.”

“I’m curious, can you blame me?” JJ asks, the video showing him walking around the apartment again. “I don’t know anything about you, aside from the fact that you’re an amazing skater, and now suddenly I _am_ you.”

“You are not me,” Yuri hisses. “This is some kind of a freak accident, or a wild nightmare, and it will all be over soon.”

JJ turns the camera on himself again. “You know, I kind of like my voice with that accent. Makes me sound sexy.”

Yuri sees himself wink like JJ always does and the sight is enough to twist his brain into a threefold knot.

“JJ, just _shut up_ and let me think.” It figures that the idiot doesn’t take this seriously. What if this isn’t over soon? What if Yuri is permanently stuck in JJ’s body?

It’s like the most horrifying nightmare his brain could ever conjure up.

JJ turns the phone again and Yuri squints at the mess in the living room. “Wait, go over to that table again.”

JJ hovers the phone over the mess on the table.

“There, that wooden box,” Yuri says. “It’s not mine.”

JJ sits down, props the phone against the armrest of Yuri’s couch and pulls the box onto his lap. It’s approximately the size of a brick and looks like solid wood.

 “I don’t see how this can be opened. There’s no lid, no hinges of any kind.” JJ holds the box out so Yuri can see it.

Yuri sighs and runs his fingers through his hair, startling again at the shortness of it. “Well look again,” he groans.

Yuri’s own face fills the phone screen. “I’m telling you. It’s just a wooden block that’s hollow.”

It’s probably a puzzle of some kind.

One they don’t have time to solve right now.

“Okay, I need to leave before your fucking family wakes up,” Yuri grumbles. “And you need to leave before the entire Russian skating squad is behind the door, wondering why I didn’t show up to practice. Unless you can explain yourself in fluent Russian.”

“But where are we going to go?” JJ asks, twisting and turning the box in his hands. In _Yuri’s_ hands.

Yuri looks around the obnoxious room, but the walls offer no answers.

“We’ll meet halfway,” he then decides. “First flight you can get, come to Reykjavik. I’ll meet you at the airport.”

JJ frowns. “Iceland?”

“You have any better ideas?” Yuri snaps.

JJ, thankfully, is quiet once in his life.

“I’ll send you a text that’s in Russian, copy and paste it and send it to Mila, you can find her by her picture in my latest messages.” He’s going to need someone to take care of Potya while he figures out how to get his body back.

Not that he’s going to explain _that_ to Mila. He needs to come up with an excuse.

“My passport is in my nightstand drawer and my wallet is in my bag by the door,” Yuri continues.

Thank fuck it’s off-season now, so even if he vanishes for a couple of days it won’t make much of a difference to his training program. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got some explaining to do once he gets back.

Hopefully in his own body.

Hell, he’ll come back in his own body or not at all.

Yuri refuses to accept the option that this is irreversible.

“My passport is in the topmost desk drawer,” JJ says. “My wallet is in my jacket pocket, it should be hanging over the desk chair. Oh, and pack the whitening toothpaste that’s by the sink.”

Yuri stares at JJ incredulously. “Are you serious? I couldn’t give a fuck about your fucking teeth right now, I want my body back!”

“Just do as I say. I still have time to do something with your body you might regret when this situation is remedied.” Yuri’s own face beams at him with JJ’s shit-eating grin, and it’s like all the horror movies in the world condensed into one grinning face.

Yuri glares. “Are you fucking threatening me?”

JJ winks. “Think about it. My face tattooed on your ass cheek.”

“You fucking wouldn’t.”

“Perhaps I’ll tattoo my hands there, too. Doing the JJ style.” JJ laughs and looks over his shoulder. “I mean, it’s a nice ass.”

“Fucking _stop_. I’ll pack your stupid toothpaste.” Yuri rolls his eyes and scowls. He doesn’t want to imagine how his own facial expressions look on JJ’s face. “Are we done here? I need to get to the airport and book the first flight to getting my life back.”

“Oh, don’t feed me anything that has strawberry in it,” JJ says. “Unless you want your skin to break out in hives.”

“You mean _your_ skin.”

“Well you’re in it, so you get to suffer through it. And that’s not all.”

Yuri squints at the screen. “What do you mean?”

JJ shrugs. “Your asshole is going to be on fire for the next four days.”

Yuri grimaces, because this is definitely on the list of things that he didn’t need to know, _ever_. “No strawberry, got it.”

“Text if there’s anything.”

“Will do,” Yuri mutters and ends the video call without any cordial goodbyes. There are more important things to think about than being polite.

He goes into the bathroom to grab JJ’s stupid toothpaste, and while he’s in, he peeks into the cupboards. It’s only fair, because JJ was going through his stuff.

Yuri spots a bottle of tanning lotion in the cupboard and smirks. _I fucking knew it. No one is that shade of orange naturally._

Yuri marches to the walk-in closet and starts rifling through the clothes. Almost everything has JJ’s initials on it. Yuri would rather die than wear any of those. In the end he manages to find a pair of jeans and a red hoodie that by some miracle doesn’t have JJ’s initials on it. He also picks a coat, because even though it’s late in the spring, Iceland is probably cold.

He starts to pull the clothes on and then realizes he needs to pee.

The implications of performing this particular action only dawn on Yuri once he’s standing in front of the toilet.

He’s going to have to touch JJ’s dick.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mostly reside on [tumblr](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/), come hit me up. My ask box is always open!  
> -  
> Thanks to my ever-patient beta [thoughtsappear](http://thoughtsappear.tumblr.com/) who also came up with the title. &hearts


	2. Chapter 2

 

 

Yuri breathes in through his nose and out through his mouth, counting to ten, because that’s what Yakov always tells him to do when he’s close to losing his shit. He glances down at the bright red boxers he’s wearing. The waistband has JJ’s initials all around, and Yuri does not want to stretch that waistband and pull out JJ’s dick.

In the end he shoves the waistband of the boxers down and fumbles around without looking, trying to mentally escape to any kind of happy la-la land that _doesn’t_ have him standing in front of a toilet holding JJ Leroy’s dick in his hand.

After he’s done, he tugs the boxers up and tries not to think about the inevitable encounter with JJ’s asshole that’s coming along sooner or later.

Yuri quickly pulls on the clothes he chose from the closet and gathers JJ’s stuff into a backpack he finds beside the desk. Then he sneaks out of the room and looks around.

The house is a fucking mansion. He’s standing in one of a long hallway and there are closed doors all along the length of it. He spots stairs in the other end and sneaks down.

He gets to the front door and can’t find any shoes anywhere. For a moment he’s afraid JJ’s family maybe wears shoes inside and he has to go all the way back into JJ’s room, but he finds a closet full of shoes beside the door.

There are various different styles and sizes, and Yuri drops the backpack on the floor in frustration, trying to determine which might fit him.

After a long while of trying on shoes he finds a pair that fits.

He’s about to step out the door when he comes to think of something.

If the battery in JJ’s phone dies, Yuri has no way of staying in contact. He’s going to need the charger.

He curses, drops the backpack and the coat, toeing the shoes off. He sneaks through the quiet house and back upstairs.

He’s almost back in JJ’s room when he hears a door opening behind him. He quickly goes into the room and closes the door behind him.

Yuri stands behind the door, heart pounding.

There are footsteps approaching and then a knock.

“Jean-Jacques?” A woman’s voice asks.

Yuri internally screams curses in all languages he can think of and rushes to the bed. He dives in and pulls the covers to his chin.

The door opens and in the light of the nightstand lamp Yuri sees JJ’s mother. He has seen JJ’s mother before, in competitions, because she is JJ’s coach, but that’s the extent of his knowledge.

“JJ?” She approaches the bed.

For a moment Yuri is afraid she’ll speak French and he’ll be even more lost.

“Is everything alright?” she asks, thankfully in English.

Yuri nods, not wanting to say anything out loud.

“Why are you awake at this hour?” She comes to sit on the edge of the bed and reaches out to stroke Yuri’s hair. Yuri has to force himself to stay still and tolerate the touch.

Yuri grimaces and pushes one hand out from under the cover, pointing to his neck. _Throat_ , he mouths.

“Your throat hurts?” Her tone is worried.

Yuri nods.

“Let me get you some tea,” she says, standing up.

Yuri shakes his head. _Sleep_ , he mouths.

“Are you sure? Let me at least get you some painkillers, okay?”

Yuri hesitates, then nods.

As soon as she’s out of the door, he rushes to unplug the charger and shoves it in his hoodie pocket. He pulls the hoodie sleeves up to his elbows. Then he goes back to bed and waits.

She comes back with a glass of water and two white pills.

Yuri reaches his hand out from under the cover just enough to take the pills and the glass. He eyes the pills for a moment but then knocks them back and gulps some water to chase them down.

“Try to get some sleep, sweetie,” JJ’s mother says and strokes his hair again.

Yuri nods and tries to smile.

She switches off the light and pads out of the room.

When she’s gone, Yuri turns on his back and lets out a long sigh.

This is fucking ridiculous.

He waits for five minutes and then leaves the room, sneaking downstairs as quietly as he can. When he gets outside he walks down the driveway until he’s not visible from the house anymore and requests an uber on JJ’s phone.

When his ride arrives, Yuri simply says, “Airport.”

During the drive he googles flights to Iceland and books one using JJ’s credit card. The price stings a bit, booked so late, but whatever. Yuri spends the rest of the ride browsing through JJ’s social media accounts, which are dinging notifications in a constant stream. He considers posting something on JJ’s instagram as a prank, but he doesn’t know if JJ is on a plane yet and he can’t risk having that douchebag’s face tattooed anywhere on his body.

The airport is familiar because he has been to Toronto before for a skating event. The flight doesn’t leave for another two hours, so Yuri goes to find the gate and settles down to wait.

A half an hour later he realizes he should have picked his seat somewhere not quite as visible, because it turns out everyone knows Canada’s skating wonder and he finds himself surrounded by girls wanting to take pictures with him.

He fakes another case of a sore throat to get away from speaking with them, and he receives a lot of cooed _awwws_ and well-wishes.

When they ask him to do the JJ style fingers for the photos, Yuri grimaces inwardly and does the motion with some difficulty. It probably doesn’t look very effortless because he has to stop and think how his fingers and hands are supposed to be positioned, but in the end all the fangirls leave, giggling and wishing him a swift recovery from his cold.

Yuri hopes he didn’t mess up too badly when he nodded and smiled to the couple of girls who spoke French to him, because he has absolutely no idea what they were asking.

 

*

 

On the plane, Yuri all but collapses. He pushes back the hair that’s tickling his eyebrows, and pulls his hood up to cover his features. He feels like he’s been pushed through a meat grinder and lived through the plot of several movies. Really, _really_ bad movies, because even those idiotic American comedy movies don’t pack up this many shitty plot twists.

He nods off during the flight but can’t properly fall asleep. He feels jittery and nervous and terrified, and he finds himself twisting and turning in his seat. He checks the flight map on the screen every two minutes, to find that they’re still somewhere over the Atlantic.

When he notices he can’t sleep he tries to watch a movie, but it all blurs into motions and words he can’t comprehend.

Reykjavik airport is really small. Yuri arrives when it’s almost noon, and then he has to wait for JJ to get there. There are no direct flights from St. Petersburg to Reykjavik, so Yuri walks around aimlessly for almost five hours before JJ’s plane lands. He buys four coffees and scrolls through JJ’s instagram and twitter, fingers itching to post something ridiculous. In the end he just likes some absolutely ridiculous photos on instagram as JJ, just to resist the urge to do anything worse. At some point the phone starts ringing and notifying him of messages from JJ’s family, but Yuri just lets the calls go to voicemail and doesn’t open the messages.

When the arrivals board informs him that JJ’s flight has landed, Yuri walks to where JJ will come through the security exit.

After what feel like an eternity, JJ strolls through security, his hair pushed back behind his ears and wearing a coat he must have found at the very back of Yuri’s closet, because Yuri hasn’t worn that awful piece of clothing in years.

Yuri’s eyes slide over JJ as he walks closer. Looking at himself from the outside like this is yet another horrible plot twist in this awful movie his life has become.

JJ stops and takes in the sight in front of him. He has an interesting look on his face. _Yuri’s_ face. Yuri shakes his head, trying to wrap his brain around the fact that he is looking at himself but simultaneously, _not_ looking at himself, but someone else is in his body.

Yuri’s thoughts feel like they’re scattering in every direction and he fails to grasp them before they’re gone.

“Did you sleep at all?” JJ eventually asks.

“Hi to you too, can we go now so we can fix this thing as soon as possible?” Yuri grumbles. It’s even weirder to hear himself talk in person.

“You know, it’s kind of difficult to have a Russian passport and not speak a word of Russian,” JJ says as they walk through the airport. “For a moment I was afraid they wouldn’t let me out of the country.”

Yuri snorts. “Well, at least you didn’t run into a pack of fangirls. I had to pretend I had a sore throat so I didn’t have to speak to them. Or your mother.”

“My mother?” JJ asks, eyes widening.

“She almost caught me leaving the house.” Yuri shrugs. “I pretended my throat was sore and she force-fed me painkillers.”

JJ grins. “Sounds like my mother.” He looks at Yuri. “How do you feel?” JJ asks.

“I’m fucking _fine_ ,” Yuri hisses. “Or as fine as I can be, considering I’m in _your_ _body_.”

JJ grabs him by the arm and shushes him. Yuri swats the hand away. He doesn’t want his body touching any part of JJ unless it’s absolutely necessary. It’s bad enough that his mind has to tolerate JJ’s bodily functions, he doesn’t need any physical aspects involved.

“Let’s go find a hotel,” Yuri says. “And open that damn box.”

“Give me my phone,” JJ says. He sounds annoyingly rational and calm. “I’ll call ahead and ask if there are vacancies.”

Yuri reads the car rental ads posted on the wall while JJ is on the phone, talking with the hotel reception desks all over town. Eventually he manages to get them a room, and Yuri all but bounces to the door. He’s so ready for all this to be over.

They walk out of the airport and get a cab. JJ says the hotel name and they drive out of the parking lot.

The airport is outside Reykjavik, and most of the drive is spent on the flat coastal road in the middle of nowhere. The actual city is a mixture of wooden houses and modern apartment buildings. The colorful houses are adorable and the city has the cozy feel of a small town, in comparison to Moscow or St. Petersburg. Under different circumstances, Yuri might enjoy traveling to Iceland, but as it is, his mind is occupied. Yuri goes through all the events from the past three weeks, but can’t figure out anything that might have caused this. His mind moves back and forth between this moment in the car and everything that’s happening in St. Petersburg right now.

Yuri watches the scenery passing without really seeing it. Eventually he feels the eyes burning holes into him, so he turns to face JJ. Or himself, whichever way he wants to look at it.

There is a slight wrinkle between JJ’s eyebrows.

“I guess I should have remembered to mention the meds,” JJ says, his eyes looking up and down Yuri. “Here’s to hoping the local pharmacy accepts e-prescriptions.”

Yuri stops. Meds? What meds? Is there something wrong with JJ? Is he dying?

No, JJ can’t die. At least not before Yuri gets his body back.

Yuri looks at JJ, eyes wide.

JJ smiles. “Um, you’re twitchy, the way I’m twitchy if I haven’t slept well and I forgot to take my meds.”

“What meds?” Yuri asks.

“Stimulants. For ADHD,” JJ says. He looks at Yuri and there is a fondness in his eyes Yuri doesn’t recognize as something his body could portray. Or maybe only when he’s looking at Potya.

He hopes Mila has time to go take care of Potya. Yuri knows the cat can survive a couple of days on the dry food she has, but she’ll get lonely.

He wonders if Yakov will hang him by the balls when he comes back from this impromptu escapade.

Then JJ’s words finally register and Yuri blinks.

Oh.

 _Oh_.

That explains why he feels like this, like his mind is in a million different galaxies all at once and nothing can hold his attention for longer than half a second. He’s tired and alert all at once and all in all it just feels like his mind is itching but he has no way to scratch it.

Yuri gapes at JJ. “You mean this is _not_ just me freaking the fuck out? That it’s like this for you every day?”

JJ shrugs. “Pretty much. I’m used to it and I can deal with it, though. You, on the other hand…”

Yuri is pretty sure the taxi driver is eyeing them suspiciously through the rear-view mirror.

“Perhaps we should talk about this when we get to the hotel,” Yuri says. “Where’s my phone?”

He spends the rest of the car ride going through the messages he’s received. Mila has sent at least ten since the one JJ sent from Yuri’s phone, asking for Mila to take care of Potya for a couple of days.

_> >>What do you mean take care of Potya? Are you not coming to practice?_

_> >>Yura, Yakov is losing it. Where are you?_

_> >>I went by the apartment and it looked like you left in a hurry. What is going on? _

_> >>ANSWER ME YURA!!! _

Yuri types in a quick generic message about how he can’t explain things right now but there’s something he needs to do and he’ll hopefully be back in a few days. He almost adds that he’s okay, but that’s completely untrue so he leaves it out.

“Oh you really butchered my signature move,” JJ groans.

Yuri looks up from the phone. “What?”

“Look at this.” JJ shoves his phone to Yuri’s face.

Someone has posted photos from the airport and tagged JJ in them. They show Yuri standing in between smiling fangirls and doing the—

“LL style? Really?” JJ huffs in an irritated tone that sounds all too familiar coming out in Yuri’s own voice.

“You can’t expect me to be able to whip out your stupid JJ style move without any practice!” Yuri mutters. He can’t help the smile creeping to his face, though. What would the LL stand for? _Lamest Loser_ , perhaps?

When they get to the hotel Yuri nearly throws a fit when it turns out they’re staying in the same room.

“The beds are separate, and this is all I could get on a half an hour’s notice,” JJ says, dragging Yuri by his coat to the elevator and shoving him in.

In the hotel room, JJ watches Yuri pace around nervously and calls the front desk to ask if there is a pharmacy nearby.

JJ ends the call and sighs. “There is a pharmacy but it’s closed until the morning. So now you either need to sleep or get some coffee.”

“Wouldn’t coffee make it even worse?” Yuri says, rolling his eyes.

JJ shakes his head. “I don’t usually have coffee if I’ve had my meds because it might mess things up, but in this situation it could help. Different neurochemistry, stimulants calm me down. Or in this case, calm _you_ down.”

If that’s the case, Yuri wonders how jittery he would be without those four coffees he had while waiting for JJ at the airport.

Yuri glances at JJ. “Coffee,” he decides. He can’t possibly sleep, not now when he’s feeling so anxious about everything.

“I’ll go get your coffee,” JJ says and disappears in a flash of blond hair.

It’s still so weird to watch himself walk out the door. Yuri touches the back of his head, and the sensation of short hair under his fingertips is shocking and unfamiliar.

Yuri paces around the room once more and then goes to dig through the backpack JJ brought along. It’s all his stuff anyway, so it’s not like he’s snooping around someone else’s bag.

The contents are sparse. A toothbrush, a phone charger, some spare underwear and the wooden box found on Yuri’s living room table.

Yuri takes the box out of the backpack and studies it. It looks like a solid wood block, but judging by the weight and the way it rattles when he shakes it, it must be hollow. He sits on one of the beds and tries prodding the corners of the box to see if there are movable parts.

When JJ comes back, Yuri is still turning the box around in his hands.

JJ sits on the other bed, facing Yuri. He wordlessly hands Yuri the takeaway cup. Yuri lowers the box to his lap, taking a sip of the coffee. He avoids looking at JJ, because he just managed to calm down enough to sit. He doesn’t need to start panicking again.

There’s too much cream and sugar in the coffee. Yuri takes another sip, grimaces and sets the coffee on the nightstand between the beds. “I don’t get this box,” he sighs. “There is no lid.”

JJ mutters something that sounds like _told you so_ , but he reaches out a hand. “Let me see that again.”

Yuri shoves the box in JJ’s direction, looking anywhere but at his own body sitting across from him. He feels it in his fingertips when JJ grabs a hold of the box and tugs on it.

The box makes a clicking sound.

They freeze, each holding one end of the box.

“What was that?” JJ asks.

Yuri snatches the box back, and sure enough, a small round knob has popped out from the previously smooth surface of the box, exactly at the center of one side. Yuri pushes the knob.

Nothing happens. “C’mon, stupid box,” Yuri mutters, pressing the knob again.

“Can I?” JJ asks, and Yuri all but throws the box at him.

JJ studies the box closely and then twists the knob.

One side of the box slides open and something chinks out and rolls under the bed.

Yuri drops to his knees beside the bed and tugs the bedspread out of the way. Underneath the bed, gleaming slightly as light hits it, lies a coin. Yuri reaches for the coin, but it’s rolled so far that he has to crawl halfway under the bed. He manages to grab the coin and backs out.

“What was that?” JJ asks.

“A coin,” Yuri mutters, climbing back on the bed.

JJ holds up a piece of paper. “There’s also some kind of letter but it’s written in Cyrillics again.”

Yuri holds the coin on his palm. It looks like it’s an old bronze coin, and there is an image minted on both sides.

The side that’s currently facing up has a shallow bowl on it. Yuri swallows and turns the coin. The other side of the coin displays a pestle.

“Mortar and pestle,” Yuri mumbles, and his heart starts hammering in his chest like it wants to pound its way out. Well, technically it’s not _his_ chest, but whatever. His thoughts that were just flittering in every direction suddenly have a razor-sharp focus that’s pinpointed on the coin.

It’s like those stories his grandfather used to tell him suddenly found a foothold in reality and have come to haunt him.

Then Yuri looks up, JJ’s words registering. Something about a letter? “Give me the letter.”

He drops the coin on the bed as JJ hands him the piece of paper. Yuri is vaguely aware of JJ grabbing the coin and turning it in his hands. Yuri spots his own chipped black nail polish on the fingers holding the coin, and he tries to calm his heart and his stomach that are both making a racket over the sight.

Yuri reads through the letter. It’s written in black ink on a piece of plain white paper. Once he gets to the end he lowers the paper on his knee and looks up.

JJ is staring at him expectantly through Yuri’s own green eyes. “Well, what does it say?”

 _That this is all my fault_ , Yuri doesn’t say. _That you play no part in this except for the fact that I dislike you._

“Yuri?” JJ asks.

Yuri sighs and holds out a hand. JJ drops the coin on his palm. Yuri holds the coin between two fingers, showing the side with the bowl on it to JJ. “The coin has a mortar on this side,” he mutters, turning the coin over. “And a pestle on the other. Mortar and pestle is something that in Russia is associated with Baba Yaga.”

“Baba Yaga?” JJ repeats, questioning.

Yuri looks down at the coin so he doesn’t have to meet the green eyes looking at him. “She’s kind of like a witch who flies around in a mortar and uses the pestle as her wand. She is all-seeing and all-knowing and if you’re evil or wicked she makes you pay for it. Only the pure of heart are safe from her wrath.” He recites his grandfather’s words by heart, having heard them so many times in his youth.

When Yuri was little, he was afraid of the stories his grandfather told him. Then he grew older and the stories started to sound silly and ridiculous; children’s tales, something to laugh about. He never imagined that the stories might come true.

Yuri clears his throat. “It says in the letter that I have angered Baba Yaga, and as a punishment she put me in the body of the person I dislike the most.”

He waits for the shouting to begin, but instead, silence prevails in the room for a long while. Yuri glances up from the coin and the letter.

There is something in JJ’s expression that Yuri can’t quite grasp. JJ somehow looks small and broken.

JJ looks down when their eyes meet, blond hair veiling his expression. “Does it say what we need to do to reverse it?”

This is not the reaction Yuri expected at all.

JJ is not shouting at Yuri for dragging him into this mess. He’s not asking what _Yuri_ is planning to do to make things right.

He’s asking what _they_ need to do. They, as in the two of them together.

Yuri swallows. “No,” he says eventually when he’s almost sure his voice will not tremble. It still trembles. “It doesn’t say anything about that.”

Yuri’s phone starts ringing and he glances at the screen, silencing the call. He can see JJ’s phone is flashing and buzzing in his hand, spewing out calls and messages from JJ’s family.

JJ’s family must be worried sick, just like Yakov and everyone in Russia is worried sick, judging by the number of calls and messages.

And it’s all Yuri’s fault.

He grits his teeth. Well it can’t be _all_ his fault, though, because if JJ wasn’t such an insufferable moron, Yuri wouldn’t need to dislike his guts so vehemently.

They sit in silence for a moment, both checking the notifications. Eventually Yuri switches the phone off entirely. He sees JJ do the same, and then another kind of silence descends into the room.

JJ shrugs. “Well, maybe we should try to get some sleep. We can think about what’s our next step tomorrow when we are rested.”

Yuri chews on his lip. He’s not quite sure what he thinks about JJ so easily lumping them together like that. He also notes that chewing on his lip feels different. Must be JJ’s damn big-ass teeth. He had just forgotten how big they were, but now he can’t think of anything else.

Yuri brushes said teeth with the cheap disposable toothbrush he finds in the bathroom and JJ’s stupid extra-whitening toothpaste. He remembered the toothpaste but forgot to bring a toothbrush. JJ’s stupid brain chemistry is probably to blame.

Yuri avoids staring at himself in the mirror, but he can’t avoid looking entirely. He catches glimpses of dark hair, blue eyes, lips that are fuller than his own. Everything about himself is completely alien right now, aside from his thoughts.

And he has to endure another encounter with JJ’s dick, which isn’t at all pleasant but not as traumatizing as the first time either.

When Yuri slinks out of the bathroom dressed in boxers and a t-shirt, JJ goes in. He has the same t-shirt on that Yuri was wearing when he went to sleep, before all this happened.

The faded logo on the shirt seems to mock him when JJ walks past. Yuri can’t help but turn to look. Does he really look that small on the outside? He’s grown in the recent years, but JJ is still taller, the blond tousle of hair falling just short of eyebrow level when Yuri watches his own body passing. Yuri looks at himself, and if he didn’t know how much spite and strength he packs up inside, he too would underestimate the slight frame and sharp features.

JJ doesn’t underestimate him anymore when it comes to skating, but he still throws mocking remarks at Yuri about his appearance.

Yuri hates himself for the thought, but he kind of understands now.

He would probably toss remarks at himself too, seeing himself like this.

They go to sleep on their respective beds, backs turned to one another. It takes a long time for Yuri to fall asleep. First he starts noticing the most random things. Like how there is an ache in JJ’s knee that Yuri wasn’t aware of, or that listening to himself sleeping in the next bed over is strange. Yuri listens to the small snorting sounds and tries to guess if they’re something he also does, or just something JJ does. A little later Yuri tries to stay awake out of spite, because he is pissed off that his life has turned into a bad rendition of a comedy movie.

Eventually he drifts off, staring at the patterned curtains and the slowly illuminating sky behind the window.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not have ADHD, but my partner of eight years does. What Yuri is going through it based on my partner’s descriptions of their ADHD. But hearing about something and experiencing it is not the same thing, so if I got something wildly wrong, I apologize.   
> -  
> I mostly reside on [tumblr](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/), come hit me up. My ask box is always open!  
> -  
> Thanks to my ever-patient beta [thoughtsappear](http://thoughtsappear.tumblr.com/) who also came up with the title. ♥


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

In the morning Yuri wakes up and feels refreshed.

Then he turns to his side and sees himself lying sprawled on the other bed, the covers tossed aside and mouth slightly open, and everything comes crashing back.

He goes to the bathroom and slams the door after himself. Looking into the mirror seems to get easier over time, but it is something he doesn’t _want_ to get used to.

Another thing he doesn’t want to get used to is JJ’s morning wood bulging in his boxers like it wants to break free. Yuri avoids looking down, but he catches a glimpse in the mirror before he can stop himself.

_That’s one huge—_

That’s how far Yuri allows the thought process to go before he looks up at the ceiling and starts thinking about cold things, disgusting things, _any_ things that aren’t related to JJ’s boner. He thinks about the lyrics to that one annoying Eurovision song from 2019. He thinks about taxes, decomposing bodies and Victor’s forehead, and finally the dick in his boxers goes soft.

When he steps out of the bathroom, JJ is awake. He stretches on the bed and yawns. “Morning.”

“Mmh,” Yuri says. His voice sounds hoarse, like the air in the room is too dry for his throat. He’s never had trouble with hotel room air conditioning before. Yuri grabs a water bottle from the minibar and downs it in one go.

“Dry throat?” JJ asks. “For me it’s strange that I don’t have that right now. I usually do. Every damn hotel.”

“Why?” Yuri asks.

JJ shrugs. “I don’t know. Either it’s the meds or some other genetic predisposition.”

“Huh,” Yuri says. He feels fine now after getting some sleep, like his mind is calmer and more focused. When he says it aloud, JJ laughs.

“Just you wait.”

They go downstairs for breakfast, and Yuri has to forgo strawberry jam on his toast, because he hasn’t forgotten what JJ said about burning assholes.

Eating with JJ’s gigantic teeth is frustrating, because Yuri keeps biting his tongue along with his toast. As an added bonus, that stupid Eurovision song keeps playing in his head and it’s getting really old really fast. Especially since his brain only seems to want to loop the same five seconds of the song instead of the entire thing. Yuri’s gaze wanders over the room and comes to a halt on the croissant JJ is currently eating.

“Don’t feed my body that many carbs,” Yuri hisses when JJ finishes the croissant and starts cramming another.

“It’s off-season and besides, I doubt I can ruin your diet with one croissant,” JJ hums, but Yuri notices he leaves the rest of the croissant untouched.

The local pharmacy is just down the street, and they make their way there after breakfast. JJ pulls up the e-prescription on his phone and then there is a long moment of explaining and bickering and bargaining, when the one getting the prescription doesn’t even know what the medication is supposed to be, and apparently the staff at a pharmacy will get suspicious if someone else answers all the questions for him.

Eventually they get the medication and go back to the hotel.

JJ presses the pharmacy bag into Yuri’s chest. “Take one now,” he says.

“But I feel fine,” Yuri protests. “Not at all like last night, like my thoughts were running in every direction at once.”

JJ sighs. “Trust me, just take the pill, so you can prevent yourself from being like that again when evening comes.”

Yuri begrudgingly downs the pill with a glass of water.

“It’s so weird taking meds I don’t need. Or my mind doesn’t need, but this body does,” Yuri mutters, lowering the plastic water cup on the nightstand. Baba Yaga’s coin seems to be staring at him from the nightstand, so he takes the coin and pushes it into his pocket.

JJ tilts his head. “This is weird for me too, you know,” he says.

Yuri frowns. “Oh, how so?”

“Well, it’s weird that I’m shorter. I haven’t been this short in years,” JJ says. “And the hair. It’s constantly in the way.”

Yuri purses his lips. “I could braid it for you?” he offers.

JJ nods. “Sure. Then there are other things,” he continues.

“Like what?”

“Like, my thoughts _not_ running into thousand different directions at once,” JJ says with a wide grin that looks unfamiliar on Yuri’s face.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Like, is this how it’s like for everyone else?” JJ muses. “Just clear-cut thoughts that arrive one or two at a time and none of them stay and bug me for the entire night like a browser tab that keeps playing music and you can’t find it so you can shut it off.” He laughs, that weird laughter that’s half-JJ and half-Yuri. “It’s almost boring. So _orderly_.”

Yuri snorts out a laughter as well. “Well, I can kind of see where you’re coming from. But speaking of boredom, with this many thoughts all the time, how come I get bored all the time? Like, this constant stream of thoughts and still I feel bored.” He shakes his head. “It’s so strange.”

JJ shrugs. “I’m not sure. I mean I know exactly what you mean. I think it’s lack of stimuli. Like if there aren’t things happening around you constantly, there isn’t anything to keep your brain occupied. It gets boring, and then your thoughts start running but none of them stay long enough to focus on. That’s just how it is, for me at least. Like, if you have something to keep you occupied, it’s easier than if there’s nothing to do.”

Yuri sits still for a moment and tries to track his thoughts. They’re still coming and going in a constant stream, but it’s not as overwhelming as it was the previous night. The thoughts are like flickers that go off at random. There are thoughts of the flight to Iceland, thoughts of St. Petersburg, the rink, skating, off-season dance practice, more skating, Mila and Yakov sending messages, back to this situation where he sits right now.

“Anyway,” Yuri says after a momentary silence. “How are going to go about the reversing what-the-fuck-ever this is?”

“Read the letter again,” JJ says, holding out the piece of paper. “Better yet, translate it for me, like word-for-word.”

Yuri sighs and takes the letter. “It says,” he starts and then squints at the letter. “Wait, it doesn’t say at all what it said last night.”

“What do you mean?” JJ leans forward.

“Last night it said this was my punishment for being rude and disrespectful,” Yuri explains. “But now it has some instructions.” He trails his finger over the lines. “No, not instructions, really. But it says that I need to learn from my mistakes.”

What the hell is that supposed to mean? If he’s respectful and nice to everyone, their bodies will magically switch back? And how is he supposed to do that if they’re stuck in fucking Iceland?

Yuri is not going back to Russia in JJ’s body.

No way.

He has a fleeting thought of that happening, and it’s just a big, flashing _no_ in his brain.

He will go back in his own body or not at all.

“This is fucking bullshit,” Yuri says and tosses the letter away. It floats away in that annoying manner that paper does, which makes tossing the piece of paper away even more frustrating because it doesn’t make a noise or shatter anything when it hits the ground.

“Well, what would you consider your mistakes to be?” JJ asks cautiously.

Yuri throws his hands up in the air, irritated. “I don’t fucking know,” he snaps. “Stupid fucking hag,” he mutters.

Calling Baba Yaga names probably doesn’t help, but right now he’s too pissed off to care.

Yuri springs up from the bed and starts pacing around the room, muttering under his breath.

JJ just sits patiently on his bed while Yuri rants in two languages and runs his fingers through his hair that is still too short, and that is probably the thing that annoys him the most. That, or JJ being so fucking calm, sitting on the bed inside Yuri’s body like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

“How can you be so fucking calm?” Yuri snaps eventually.

“I don’t know. Perhaps your brain chemistry works better in combination with my mind.”

“No, it fucking doesn’t. My mind works best in _my_ body. That body which I’d very much like to get back.”

“Well your temperament combined with my brain chemistry definitely doesn’t make for the most attractive combination,” JJ mutters.

Yuri pauses, closes his mouth and swallows. “What do you mean?” he asks.

“Seems like that explosive temperament of yours is only boosted by being in my body. Or are you always this cranky?”

Yuri huffs. “I’m not fucking cranky! I just want my body back!”

“That’s _not_ cranky? Well then I’d hate to see you when you _are_ cranky.” JJ snorts.

“Fuck you,” Yuri snarls.

“Well fuck you too. You’re the one who got us into this mess,” JJ snaps back, and that’s the thing that finally makes Yuri stop and stare.

JJ can be a loud-mouthed and arrogant fool, but he’s not usually this rude.

JJ tilts his jaw, and his eyes flash in anger. Yuri supposes the look is very familiar to people around him, but to him it’s freaky to watch from the outside what angered Yuri Plisetsky looks like.

JJ’s words sting a little, even if they are true.

Yuri paces to the window and stares out, pushing his hands into his hoodie pockets. The window of their hotel room overlooks an industrial area that’s not quite as picturesque as the photos in the travel brochures about Iceland have presented.

Well, it’s not like Yuri is here to see the scenery.

Yuri turns back and forces himself to look at JJ. He’s sitting on the bed, blond hair covering most of his face. Yuri can’t help but smile. JJ has already discovered the pros of long hair. It makes for a good hideout when he doesn’t want his expressions to be seen.

“Sorry,” Yuri mutters and sighs.

JJ may be an ass but he has right to hate Yuri’s guts for bringing him into this mess.

JJ shrugs and pushes the blond strands back behind his ears.

Yuri slumps down on his bed and digs the bronze coin out of his pocket. “So, any ideas?”

JJ gives a small half-smile. “Maybe we should explore Iceland?”

“I’m in no mood for exploring anything,” Yuri snaps, flipping Baba Yaga’s coin in his hands.

“Well, what else can we do?” JJ asks. “Sit here until we’re old and gray?”

Yuri was hoping that by some miracle they’d wake up in the morning and everything would be back to normal. Guess that’s not happening.

Yuri shrugs. “Where do you wanna go?”

 

*

 

They rent a car and drive outside the city.

Yuri’s mental image of Iceland was that it’s mostly _ice_ , but it’s a lot greener than he pictured. There are green pastures and clear streams running down from the mountains.

“Well, if we’re stuck like this, perhaps we can found a sheep farm here,” JJ says, waving his hand to encompass the entire landscape spreading in front of them.

“Like I’d do anything with _you_ ,” Yuri remarks with a snort.

JJ flinches visibly, and Yuri kind of wants to bite his tongue. He’s supposed to try to behave better, not _worse_.

“I’d prefer horses,” Yuri says awkwardly after the silence has stretched on for a long while. “Horses are cool.”

“Man, I’d look good on a horse,” JJ muses. “Or, well, you would look good on a horse.”

Yuri can’t help the reflexive facepalming motion his hand makes. “That’s what you’re thinking right now? How good this body would look on a horse?” He motions to his chest, covered by JJ’s red Canada Goose coat.

JJ laughs and looks away. “I was actually referring to you. This body. You know, handsome blond man on an Icelandic horse in this scenery. You could make a travel brochure of that.”

Yuri blinks. Did JJ just call him handsome?

He shakes his head. “Anyway. No sheep for me.”

JJ winks. “Okay, horses it is, then.”

“Ugh.” Yuri rolls his eyes. “ _We_ are not founding a horse ranch here, because we are going to get back into our own bodies and go home.”

JJ doesn’t say anything. Instead, he looks at the scenery spreading in front of them and snaps a few pictures. They both take pictures but there seems to be a wordless agreement to not post them anywhere.

The coastal road around Iceland offers beautiful sights, but Yuri can’t really enjoy them. He looks down at his phone, where another call from Yakov is in the process of going to voicemail. Mila texts him constantly and even Victor has dug his head out of his ass long enough to send an inquisitive message concerning Yuri’s whereabouts. Yuri replies to every tenth message Mila sends, telling that he’s going through something and needs some time, and no, there is no need to call the police.

They turn the car around at some point and drive back to Reykjavik. Dinner is a silent affair in a restaurant near the hotel, and afterwards Yuri resigns himself to having to scrub JJ’s body clean in the shower.

In the shower, Yuri watches the soap suds as they glide over the tattoos on his arms. He gets stuck reading the label of the hotel's complimentary shampoo bottle and then uses too much shampoo because his hair is shorter than what he’s used to. 

As he brushes his teeth with JJ’s miracle toothpaste, he looks at himself in the mirror. The reflection is a bit blurred after the hot shower, but he can see that JJ’s chin has a stubble on it that’s darker and coarser than Yuri’s. Yuri runs his fingers over the stubble. He’s not sure if he likes the sensation or not. He didn’t bring razors so there’s nothing he can do about it now, though.

When Yuri gets out of the shower, JJ is lounging naked on his bed, waiting for his turn to take a shower.

“JJ, what the fuck?” Yuri asks, rolling his eyes.

“Yuri, are you honestly telling me you’ve never seen yourself naked?” JJ deadpans.

“That’s not the point!” Yuri says. “I don’t want you gawking at my body.”

“I’m _in_ your body,” JJ replies. “Not a whole lot I don’t know about it. I took a shit in the morning, can’t get much more intimately acquainted than that.”

“Did _not_ need to know that,” Yuri mutters, walking over to his bed. Once JJ is in the bathroom, Yuri drops the towel and digs around the bag he brought with him.

It figures he didn’t remember to bring any clean underwear.

Eventually Yuri just steals a pair of boxers from his own bag, because JJ actually did remember to bring spare underwear.

Yuri lies on the bed, dressed in a bathrobe and flicking through the channels on the TV. There are several channels that are in English, but for some reason Yuri ends up watching an Icelandic talk show and trying to figure out if he can catch any words he understands. The language sounds like gibberish and he can’t really understand any of it, but it gives him something to do. Something other than thinking about how he’s been in JJ’s body for almost two days now and he still has no idea how to get back into his own.

Also, what he doesn’t want to think about is the fact that he’s starting to feel the dinner and everything else he’s eaten shifting forward in his body.

Yuri has tried to avoid it, but it looks like he’s going to have make acquaintance with JJ’s asshole after all.

_God dammit._

 

*

 

In the morning it’s disappointing to roll over on the bed and encounter a blond mess of hair on the other bed.

Yuri sighs and pads into the bathroom.

When he comes out, JJ is sitting on the bed.

JJ squints. “Those are your boxers.”

“Forgot to bring spares,” Yuri says, grinning.

JJ rolls his eyes. “Figures. Take your meds,” he says, pointing to the nightstand where the package resides. JJ gets up and stretches on his way to the bathroom.

Yuri knocks back a pill and then runs his fingers through his hair. It’s messy after sleeping, and seems impossible to tame.

“You’d need like seven different hair products to make it look presentable,” JJ says from the bathroom doorway. “Also, is your hair always this slippery after washing? I can’t even get a ponytail to stay in it.”

“Come here,” Yuri says, motioning to the bed. JJ comes and sits down. He waits patiently while Yuri braids the blond strands into a French braid and ties it at the end. Yuri has done a French braid on himself hundreds, probably thousands of times, but making one on himself when he can actually see the back of his head is an all-new experience.

Yuri kind of wants to tickle JJ at the nape of his neck to see if the ticklish spots are the same as they are for Yuri, but he resists the urge and lets the end of the braid drop so it’s hanging between JJ’s shoulder blades. “There.”

“Thanks,” JJ says, touching the braid. “Now let me help you with my hair.”

JJ motions him into the bathroom and uses water and a comb to tame the black hair sticking out at the crown of Yuri’s head. “That’s the best I can do without any products,” JJ eventually says, and he sounds apologetic.

Yuri can’t get over the fact that JJ is so chill about this. Aside from that one snappy comment, he hasn’t said a word that would indicate he blames Yuri for this.

He would have every right to blame Yuri for this.

But he doesn’t.

Yuri glances at JJ as he’s giving Yuri’s hair some finishing touches with a comb. “Thanks,” Yuri mutters once the hair looks a bit more like human hair and less like something a bird would gladly use as a nest.

They eat breakfast amicably and Yuri catches himself smiling on occasion when JJ does something that’s _so_ JJ, and it looks funny when it’s Yuri’s body doing it.

He wonders how he looks on the outside, having the mannerisms he usually has but a different body is executing the motions.

“So, what now?” Yuri asks once they’re done with breakfast. There’s a looming sensation of dread because it’s now day three and he’s still not sure what Baba Yaga wants him to do.

JJ glances at Yuri. “How about we drive up to the glacier?”

JJ drives, and on the way to the edge of the glacier, Yuri snaps photos of the scenery and then, grinning, takes a photo of JJ while he’s driving.

JJ gives him a side-eye. “What are you doing?”

“Not like I can take a selfie right now,” Yuri points out.

“Fair enough.”

As they stand on the edge of the glacier and stare at the masses of ice spreading in front of them, Yuri kicks a chunk of ice around and thinks about a conversation he had with Otabek some years ago. They were talking about what they’d want to happen if they ended up braindead.

Yuri recalls Otabek’s serious face when he asked, _What do you think makes a person a person?_

Otabek is always pondering deep stuff like that, and that’s why their video chats are so interesting. Otabek is a total nerd and can spend hours talking about space, parallel universes and the complexity of the human brain. It’s refreshing to have someone to talk to about something else than skating.

To that particular question Yuri replied, easily, that his _mind_ is what makes him the person he is. Yuri’s stance to being braindead was that his body is of no consequence if his mind is gone: just pull the plug.

Back then it was easy to answer that his thoughts, feelings and memories make him who he is.

However, he still has his thoughts, feelings and memories—all that’s changed is the shell they’re stored in.

Yuri doesn’t feel like himself anymore. He realizes that the synapses firing differently in this body affect everything; the way he thinks, the way he reacts, the way he feels.

Perhaps Yuri is not just a collection of his own memories, thoughts and feelings. There is more to it. The container _matters_.

Yuri thinks he’s starting to grasp why he was put in JJ’s body.

_Never judge anyone before you’ve walked in their shoes._

He hasn’t literally walked in JJ’s shoes, because apparently the ones Yuri grabbed are JJ’s brother’s, but the sentiment stands.

Yuri thought JJ was an arrogant jackass, but the two days he’s spent with JJ are starting to change that impression. JJ might be loud and arrogant, but he’s also caring and patient and funny. Additionally, experiencing the chaos of JJ’s neurochemistry has given Yuri some perspective. He’s never felt as lost inside his own head as he feels now, with the millions of synapses bombarding him in a constant stream of thoughts, emotions and impulses.

JJ has always seemed brash, but now Yuri keeps wondering how much of the stream of impulses he must be constantly suppressing.

“We should take a picture together,” Yuri says.

JJ looks surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah, why not? I’m not going to post it anywhere though.”

They pose at the edge of the glacier and Yuri snaps photos on his phone. Looking at the photos it’s impossible to tell that he’s not in his own body. The thought makes him sad. Yuri sighs, tapping the display so the picture vanishes from sight.

They drive down from the glacier and get a late lunch.

JJ is browsing his phone while they eat. “Yuri,” he says suddenly, looking up with gleaming green eyes. “Yuri, there’s a _dick museum_ in Reykjavik!”

And that’s how Yuri finds himself in a phallus museum looking at display after display filled with penises.

JJ is way too excited about dicks for a guy who is supposed to be straight.

“Ever heard of bisexuals?” JJ asks absently when Yuri points it out to him.

The way he says it is so nonchalant that Yuri stands gaping beside a row of glass jars with penis specimens in them.

“What?” JJ asks when Yuri keeps staring. “The dicks are that way.” He points at the jars. “No wait, that was like an invitation for you to say you’re looking at one.”

Yuri can’t help it, the laughter bubbles out of him before he can stop it. It’s his own laugh, but it’s coming out in JJ’s deep, rumbling voice, and it’s such a mindfuck that he just can’t stop laughing. He almost doubles over, cackling at everything and nothing at once.

“Yuri, are you alright?” JJ asks, but he’s laughing too.

“We’re standing in a museum filled with dicks,” Yuri hiccups in between bouts of laughter. “And it’s not even _funny_ , except that it is.”

That elicits another laugh from JJ, and as Yuri listens to their combined laughs, he can just about imagine that he’s laughing in his own voice.

“I wonder how much they’d pay me to stand in a glass case all day long?” JJ grins once the laughter finally dies.

“You’d probably have to be naked, and no, you are not putting my body on display,” Yuri says.

JJ elbows him in the ribs. “Oh, c’mon, it’s a good body. People would line up to catch a glimpse of _this_ ,” JJ says, pointing up and down Yuri’s body.

In the light of JJ’s earlier notion about bisexuality, Yuri feels his cheeks flush red at the compliment. JJ seems to notice this because he looks away and coughs.

 

*

 

“Did you know that a whale’s penis is called a _dork_?” JJ says a little bit later, leafing through the museum guide. “We _have to_ take a picture with us and that whale penis and caption it _‘dorks’_ , I mean, _c’mon_.”

And that’s how Yuri finds himself standing with JJ next to a glass case that has a penis taller than himself sloshing around in formalin, while a smiling museum attendant takes a photo on Yuri’s phone.

Yuri senses the shift in the atmosphere as they leave the museum. It’s familiarity laced with awkwardness, and something that almost feels like an understanding between them.

That night, Yuri is channel surfing while JJ is texting someone, probably his family.

“Third night,” JJ says. “Still no change.” He drops the phone on his bed.

“Hmm,” Yuri says. He puts the remote down and reaches for the letter that’s on the nightstand.

The paper is completely empty.

Yuri blinks. “What the fuck?”

JJ sits up, craning his neck. “What’s up?”

“It’s empty,” Yuri says, showing the sheet of paper to JJ. “The text is just _gone_.”

There is a wrinkle between JJ’s eyebrows. “Well, what does it mean?”

Yuri shakes his head. “I have no idea.”

The coin sitting on the edge of the nightstand looks the same as it did before, but the letter is now just a blank piece of paper.

Yuri doesn’t feel any different, though. His thoughts are rushing wildly here and there, trying to come up with solutions or answers. His eyes keep flicking from the muted TV to JJ sitting on the other bed and back to the letter, still grasped in his hand.

“Give me your hand,” Yuri says, dropping the letter on the nightstand.

“What?”

“I don’t know, maybe the paper is a sign of something. Maybe it’ll transfer us back into our own bodies if we are connected somehow,” Yuri mutters. He’s desperate enough to start trying anything.

Well, _almost_ anything.

“No way,” Yuri snaps after they tried hand-holding and even hugging. “I am _not_ kissing myself.”

Hugging JJ was surprisingly nice, albeit a little strange, but that’s about as far as Yuri is willing to go.

“Aww, but it might work, you never know,” JJ says. “Besides, I’ve always wanted to know how it’s like to kiss the King. I only get to experience it from the other end.” JJ wiggles his eyebrows. Well, wiggles _Yuri’s_ eyebrows, and it’s such an alien look on Yuri’s features.

Yuri groans. “God you’re such an egotistical piece of shit.”

“What do you have to lose at this point?” JJ asks.

 _My dignity_ , Yuri doesn’t answer. His eyes slide over the room and try to find something to focus on. Something that isn’t his own face, staring at him earnestly and wanting to kiss him.

That is fucked up on so many levels that his brain folds in onto itself at the thought.

They’re sitting on the same bed now, and Yuri feels when JJ’s weight shifts. The weight is not moving closer, though, but sliding farther. Yuri sneaks a glance.

JJ sits at the foot of the bed, and the blond braid hangs over his shoulder. He keeps playing with the end of the braid, and there is that strange look on his face again; the same one he had when Yuri told him what Baba Yaga’s letter said.

“Honestly, Yuri, is it because you’re freaked out about the idea of kissing yourself, or because it’s me?” JJ asks.

“What?” Yuri asks in return, uncomprehending.

JJ looks at him then, and Yuri is finally able to label the expression he’s seen flickering across JJ’s face every now and then.

JJ looks _hurt_.

“I mean, I know I’m the person you hate the most. That’s why I’m in here,” JJ points at his head, “And you’re in there.” His finger moves to point at Yuri’s head.

Yuri bites his lip, unable to respond right away. His eyes slide around the room again, searching for a place to land.

They land back on JJ, who is looking the other way and messing with the braid.

JJ is hurt because Yuri _dislikes_ him? But why would he care at all what some random Russian figure skater thinks about him?

Yuri has always disliked JJ for being loud and obnoxious and giving him shit about his appearance. However, he’s never stopped to think about what JJ thinks of _him_. Yuri’s thoughts flit back to JJ’s room and the poster of himself on the wall. He thinks back on their conversations over the past few days: JJ said he’s an amazing skater. When he talked about Yuri on horseback, JJ hinted that he was handsome. JJ has said several positive things about Yuri’s body. JJ talks to Yuri like he’s happy to hang out with him, even if the circumstances are less than optimal. All that topped with the cherry that is JJ’s bisexuality…

“You like me,” Yuri says in a rushed exhale. “Oh my god, you _like_ me and I didn’t realize.”

The hurt in JJ’s eyes makes sense now. Of course he would be hurt if the object of his affections hates him so much that he gets mixed up into a magical curse as a result.

Yuri sees the flush spreading on JJ’s face. JJ doesn’t say anything to admit or deny his crush, but deducing it becomes easy when Yuri finally lays all the evidence out like that.

Yuri looks at his hands folded on his lap. Well, not his hands, but the hands he’s been using for the past couple of days.

“I don’t hate you,” Yuri mutters. It’s true. He feels like he’s come closer to understanding JJ over their time together. He gets it now why JJ seems to talk before his brain catches up. Yuri has blurted out a few things before thinking, and it’s all because his head feels like it’s too full of stuff and he can’t keep up.

JJ’s looking at him now. Yuri looks back, and for the first time he _watches_ the body that is his but the motions and expressions are someone else’s. The line of his mouth looks softer than in most photos Yuri has seen of himself. The hand gestures are different, clumsier, like JJ doesn’t quite know how to deal with a body that’s narrower than his.

Yuri smiles tentatively. He’s learned so much about JJ over the past few days, and most of it is positive. He knows JJ does volunteer charity work and that he loves his family. He knows JJ has a university degree, and he was a top student despite his brain synapses constantly firing at a rate that leaves Yuri exhausted. JJ is a warm, genuine person, even if he sometimes expresses himself like a dumb buffoon.

Yuri thinks back to all those times over the years when JJ has said something stupid to him. JJ once called him pretty, and Yuri told him to go fuck himself.

He realizes now it’s a matter of perspectives and expectations. JJ probably blurted out what he thought was something nice, and Yuri took it as an insult because that’s what he expected from someone like JJ. Only he didn’t really _know_ what JJ was like at the time. He knew just enough to decide he disliked JJ, and that probably colored every exchange of words between them.

In the light of the past three days, Yuri now realizes JJ was not insulting him with all those comments about his looks.

JJ was _complimenting_ him. Only their language of communication was out of sync, so what left JJ’s brain as a compliment was received in Yuri’s end as an insult.

Yuri looks at his hands on his lap, eyes wide. He painstakingly goes through every exchange that has been stored in his memory and labeled as hateful, and his world seems to rearrange itself as he looks at the memories without the angry-red glasses discoloring them.

“I don’t hate you at all,” Yuri says, for emphasis, and when he looks up JJ’s face spreads into a smile. The smile is wider than what Yuri usually goes for, but it looks good on his face. It looks happy.

JJ slides closer and suddenly Yuri finds himself in a tight hug. Yuri’s own blond hair is tickling his nose and his own arms cling to him, and holding himself is weird but not as weird as it should be. The touch is warm and reassuring.

“I’m sorry,” Yuri mutters.

“No need,” JJ whispers. “It’s okay.”

There is a sudden flash of light followed by complete darkness, and Yuri falls into it, floating away from the embrace, the hotel bed and everything.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rating was bumped to Explicit because of stuff that happens in the last chapter! :)  
> -  
> I mostly reside on [tumblr](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/), come hit me up. My ask box is always open!  
> -  
> Thanks to my ever-patient beta [thoughtsappear](http://thoughtsappear.tumblr.com/) who also came up with the title. ♥


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that the rating has changed to explicit, there's some hand jobs and blow jobs involved...

 

When Yuri wakes up, he’s lying on the hotel bed, almost nose to nose with none other than Jean-Jacques Leroy.

Yuri startles, first because he finds himself thinking that the dark tousle of hair is cute when it’s sleep-messy and the bold eyebrows look softer when JJ is sleeping. It takes way too many seconds for Yuri to realize he’s not staring at himself sleeping in a mirror. He’s staring at the actual Jean-Jacques Leroy, sleeping beside him. In his own body.

Yuri shoots up from the bed and rushes to the bathroom to look in the mirror.

Green eyes, blond hair in a messy braid that’s falling apart, remnants of chipped black nail polish on his nails.

_I’m back in my own body._

Yuri runs a finger over his features, watching as his reflection does the same. His teeth feel like they’re normal-sized again, his lips are smaller and his body narrower than JJ’s. Yuri slides his hand down his right arm, no longer tattooed with a maple leaf, and he’s filled with an overwhelming sense of relief.

JJ appears in the bathroom doorway, yawning. He frowns at the sight of Yuri and blinks. He looks down at his arms where the ridiculous tattoos decorate his skin, then looks at Yuri again, their eyes locking through the mirror.

“Holy shit,” JJ breathes. “We’re back.”

“Yeah,” Yuri replies. “So. I guess we’re done here?” he asks, happy that his mind is finally back where it belongs.

He catches the way JJ’s shoulders slouch at the comment.

They start packing their belongings in silence. It’s a soothing sensation to have his thoughts arrange themselves neatly in his head after the chaos of the past few days. Yuri watches as JJ takes his medication with absent-minded ease that speaks of familiarity, and there is an odd sense of fondness in the pit of his stomach.

Yuri notices that Baba Yaga’s coin is gone along with the wooden box, but the sheet of paper is still on the nightstand. He reaches out for the crumpled piece of paper and unfolds it.

_Respect everyone, especially those you do not know. It will get you further in life than rudeness and contempt._

Yuri reads the words a few times and then chuckles.

“What does it say?” JJ asks, looking at the paper over Yuri’s shoulder.

“Apparently I have learned my lesson about respecting people instead of being rude to them,” Yuri explains.

“Oh,” JJ says. There is a slight smile on his face as he looks at Yuri.

Yuri sees the exact moment when JJ realizes that Yuri is now aware of his crush, because his face flushes and he averts his eyes, and Yuri catches himself thinking it’s cute.

It’s awkward, to step closer and wrap his arms around JJ, but the hug is nicer than the previous ones. Last night, there was an agenda, something they were trying to accomplish by physical touch. This time it is just because Yuri feels like he wants to. JJ startles at the touch, but then he wraps his arms around Yuri and rests his cheek against Yuri’s temple. The hesitant touch is affectionate and soft, and Yuri closes his eyes, listens to the slow rate of their breathing and the electronic hum of the air-conditioning in the room.

Yuri has learned a lot about JJ over the past few days, but perhaps he’s also learned something about himself.

Having seen the way JJ behaved in his body makes Yuri think, maybe there are things that his own brain chemistry or his temperament mess up every now and then, making him lash out or spit out rude comments before he can think. That doesn’t give him any excuses, though, because it’s something he can learn to control. After all, JJ has his own issues pretty well under control, and there is no way Yuri is going to admit that JJ can beat him in something.

Yuri looks fondly at JJ, who is shoving his phone charger into his bag in a tangled mess.

From this on, Yuri won’t be so quick to judge other people based on their behavior. There can always be factors that he doesn’t know about, playing a role in the behavior of any person. He knows Yuuri sometimes seems whiny because of his anxiety, and he knows Georgi’s mood alternates between highs and lows because of his bipolar disorder.

Now he knows that Jean-Jacques Leroy seems like a loud obnoxious idiot because his brain is rapid-firing him with _everything_ all at once. Yuri can also tell from experience that it’s something that’s really difficult to deal with.

Yuri realizes they’ve stood in the hotel room, hugging for about two minutes longer than is socially acceptable. When he detaches from the embrace, JJ only allows him a small distance before stopping Yuri with hands cupped around his elbows.

“Yuri,” JJ says in a low tone, his gaze wandering over Yuri’s face as if searching for something. “You figured out I like you, and you said you don’t hate me. I may be an idiot at times but I’m not so stupid I’d imagine that means I have a chance with you. So I need to ask.”

Yuri just stares into JJ’s blue eyes stupidly. “Ask what?”

JJ blinks. “If there’s a chance that we’d ever be… _something_.”

Yuri feels a slight rush of blood to his cheeks.

“You don’t even know me,” Yuri mumbles, looking down at their toes.

In his peripheral vision he sees JJ shake his head. “I didn’t know you three days ago. I was attracted to you, yes, but I didn’t know you. Now I feel like I _do_ know you, a little bit at least.”

“And you still like me?” Yuri snorts to cover the embarrassment in his tone. “Even after I got you mixed up in this stupid curse?”

“More than ever.” JJ’s tone is so soft that Yuri has to blink. “I’ve seen a lot of new sides to you while we’ve been here. And I’d like to know more about you.”

Yuri looks up at JJ’s smiling face, and all his thoughts about JJ being kind and patient and cute come crashing down on him.

“I might not be as fun in my own body,” Yuri says as one last attempt to warn JJ about the rollercoaster ride he’s about to embark on.

“Maybe so,” JJ hums. “So it’s good that I’m fun for both of us.” He grins.

JJ tugs him close by the elbows, and Yuri’s intended words of protest get drowned into a kiss.

JJ’s kiss is like JJ himself; warm and sloppy and so genuine that it twists Yuri’s insides into pretzel shapes and double knots. The stubble on JJ’s face is rough against Yuri’s skin, contrasting with the softness of the touch.

When their lips detach, they’re both slightly out of breath and JJ’s pupils are blown wide.

“Can we do that again?” he asks.

Yuri nods, and that’s all the invitation JJ needs before he cups Yuri’s face between his hands and kisses him again. There is more tongue this time, with a promise of something more to come.

When they pull back after the second kiss, JJ’s mouth is red and his lips slightly parted.

Yuri glances at the packed backpack on the bed. “How long did you book the hotel room for?”

JJ shrugs. “I said I didn’t know how long we would stay. I told them we had marital issues we needed to work through.”

“You told them _what?_ ” Yuri gapes at JJ. “So you mean to say that during our entire stay the staff has thought we’re trying to fix a _marriage_ , instead of reversing a curse?”

“Well I couldn’t just tell them we were here to reverse a _curse_ , now could I?” JJ points out.

“I guess,” Yuri mutters. Well, that explains the looks he has gotten from some members of the staff; those curious, slightly pitying glances and politely muted smiles.

“Well, I declare those marital issues now fixed,” Yuri tells him. “And since we are here, can we stay a little longer? I’d probably enjoy Iceland a lot more now that I don’t have to fumble around in that massive body of yours.”

“ _Hey_ , my body fat percentage is like 10,” JJ defends.

“Whatever, giant,” Yuri says, smiling.

“Whatever, tiny person.”

Yuri snorts. “Tiny person? That’s the best insult you could come up with?”

JJ’s gaze is intense. “See, but I don’t wanna insult you.” He brushes a strand of hair off Yuri’s face, and the touch of his fingertips is like fire on Yuri’s skin.

Yuri leans into the touch. It’s puzzling how these few days have destroyed the mental image he had of JJ and replaced it with something new. The new image is of a softer JJ who is funny and caring and ridiculous. This new JJ is nowhere near perfect but still makes Yuri feel warm and fuzzy inside.

JJ steps back and holds out a hand. “Maybe we should explore Iceland?” he says, and it’s the same utterance than two days ago but it’s also different, because now they’re back where they belong.

“Sure,” Yuri says, taking the offered hand.

They get dressed in their coats and walk down to the elevator hand in hand.

When they pass the front desk, Yuri doesn’t miss the looks aimed at their entwined fingers. One of the reception workers gives him a thumbs-up as they pass, and Yuri realizes they’ve done all their business with a person who looks like Yuri and speaks English with a Canadian accent, while his dark-haired Russian partner has fidgeted somewhere in the background, and now suddenly that’s changed.

When he points this out to JJ outside the hotel, JJ groans.

“Aww dammit, we should have recorded ourselves speaking. I could have blown minds with my excellent Russian accent imitation,” JJ says, squeezing Yuri’s hand.

“You’re an idiot,” Yuri tells him, laughing.

“I’m also bitter that I will never know what it’s like to kiss myself, and it’s your fault,” JJ accuses.

“I guess you’re going to have to make do with me describing it, then,” Yuri says easily and winks.

JJ beams. “Well, do tell? Is it amazing?”

“Kind of slobbery,” Yuri teases. “Like kissing a dog.”

JJ elbows him in the side. “This is serious!”

“How is this serious?” Yuri laughs. “Well, if you want an up-to-date description I guess you have to kiss me again. My memory of the last one is already fading.”

JJ grabs him by the wrist and pulls him into a kiss. Their noses bump together and it’s uncoordinated as fuck, but it’s still pretty damn good.

“You know, we could still get that horse ranch,” JJ says as they walk around Reykjavik. “Screw figure skating, we’ll retire to Iceland and get twelve ponies.”

“Imagine the headlines,” Yuri muses. “ _Rival figure skaters retire at the prime of their career to raise ponies in Iceland_.”

“Well, you always want to surprise the audience, right?” JJ laughingly replies.

“Surprise, I’m retiring and moving to Iceland!” Yuri says in a fake-excited tone. “Yakov would tear the rest of his hair off.”

JJ stops. “Speaking of which, we should probably call them.”

Yuri nods.

They make their way into a rustic café and order coffee and cheesecake.

JJ calls his parents, and Yuri can hear their worried tones across the table. “Sorry, Mama, there was just something that came up, I had to take off for a couple of days. I’m okay, I promise… Tell Alex I’m sorry I took his shoes, I was kind of in a weird place that night.”

Yuri grimaces at the mention of the shoes, and JJ winks at him. “I’ll be back soon. Oh, sorry. I’m in Iceland.”

Yuri hears the squealed ‘ _Iceland?!_ ’ clear as day.

Once JJ ends the call, Yuri calls Yakov and goes through a similar series of questions. Yakov’s gruffly uttered, ‘ _Iceland?_ ’ doesn’t sound as high-pitched as JJ’s mother’s, but it’s just as disbelieving.

“I’ll be home soon and I’ll make up for the practice sessions I missed, promise,” Yuri says. “Do you know if Mila has been taking care of Potya?”

Yakov tells him to ask for himself and the phone is apparently shoved to Mila. Yuri glances at the time and realizes it’s time for evening practice in St. Petersburg.

“Hey,” Yuri greets cautiously.

“Douche,” Mila greets back. “Everyone has been worried sick.”

“Sorry,” Yuri mutters. “Is Potya okay?”

“I’ve been sleeping at your apartment so she doesn’t have to be alone,” Mila says with a resigned sigh that lets Yuri know she’s not angry with him. “She’s been sneaking into the bag where I keep my clothes. At this point my clothes are more cat hair than fabric.”

“Thanks so much for looking after her,” Yuri says. “Anyway, I gotta go, but I’ll be back soon. Bye!”

He ends the call before Mila has time to chastise him more.

“That sounded like a whole lot of angry Russians yelling at you,” JJ remarks.

Yuri shrugs. “They were just worried.”

They finish their cheesecake and walk back to the hotel.

“I guess we better start booking flights home,” JJ says when they get to the room. “You need to get back to practice before Yakov goes bald and I need to get back home before my mom flies over to see what’s holding me.”

He glances at Yuri meaningfully when he utters the last three words, and Yuri tilts his head to hide the look on his face.

They both book flights for the next day and then spend the rest of the day in the room, watching stupid hotel room movies and talking about everything that has happened.

“I can’t believe there’s a photo of me doing double-L sign floating online,” JJ groans at some point. “You really need to learn how to do that the right way.”

Yuri grins. “Maybe I’ll keep doing it the LL style, just for shits and giggles.”

“Should have gotten that tattoo on your ass when I had the chance,” JJ tries to grumble, but his smile betrays that he’s not really annoyed.

That night, they move the nightstand away from its spot between the beds and push the twin frames together. They both sleep on their own sides, but on the middle ground where one bed ends and the other begins, their hands seek each other. Yuri falls asleep to the feeling of JJ’s thumb slowly rubbing circles to the back of his hand.

 

*

 

When Yuri wakes up in the morning, he registers two things at once. One, someone is breathing against his neck, and two, noticing this doesn’t make his awkward morning boner disappear. Quite the opposite, actually.

Apparently, JJ is a very tactile sleeper, because sometime in during the night he has crawled across the no-man’s-land between them to where Yuri is lying on his back. He’s also wormed his way under Yuri’s blanket, and Yuri feels clammy where their skin sticks together. JJ lies with his head buried in the crook of Yuri’s neck, one arm thrown across Yuri’s chest and one leg between Yuri’s legs. He’s making soft noises that don’t quite count as snores, and Yuri notices they’re the same noises JJ made in his sleep when he was in Yuri’s body. It’s kind of cute.

On each exhale, JJ’s breath tickles Yuri’s neck and he feels every minuscule movement when JJ shifts in his sleep.

JJ’s hair brushes against his cheek, and without thinking, Yuri brings a hand up to JJ’s hair and strokes the dark strands gently. At the back of his head, the undercut is soft and fuzzy, and not at all as panic-inducing as it was four days ago when he discovered it on his own head.

JJ murmurs sleepily, his lips moving against the skin somewhere above Yuri’s collarbone. His stubble scratches Yuri’s skin, and Yuri has a fleeting mental image of his body covered with bite marks and beard burn.

It’s not a _bad_ thought. Not at all.

Yuri’s hand freezes in JJ’s hair when JJ’s leg slides up between Yuri’s thighs and comes in contact with Yuri’s cock.

JJ’s leg comes to a halt, but his hand starts sliding down under the covers, his fingers deftly pushing the hem of Yuri’s t-shirt out of the way and rubbing Yuri’s stomach above the waistband of his boxers. JJ presses his lips against Yuri’s neck harder, with intent, and Yuri gasps when JJ’s teeth graze the skin just under his jawline.

“Morning,” JJ says in a low tone that’s sleep-raspy and slightly hoarse. “I’m going to get some water. Don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back.”

JJ clambers off the bed and goes to snatch a water bottle from the minibar. Yuri watches him as he goes. He doesn’t know at what point during the night JJ has discarded his shirt, but he is shirtless now. Yuri’s eyes follow the curve of his spine and stop at the stupid tattoo on his lower back for a second. Then his gaze inches downward and lingers on JJ’s ass. The boxers JJ is wearing are Yuri’s and they don’t leave much to the imagination. They’re tight even on Yuri, so they’re sinfully tight on JJ. When JJ turns to come back to bed, Yuri can see through the straining fabric that JJ is hard as well.

JJ comes back with the bottle and climbs to his previous spot, sliding under the covers until he’s back against Yuri’s side. JJ cracks the bottle open, gulps down several mouthfuls of water, and Yuri’s eyes follow the movements of his throat as he swallows. JJ offers the bottle to Yuri, and he takes a sip. JJ screws the cap back on and tosses the bottle somewhere behind him on the bed, and then his lips are on Yuri’s, cool and moist from the water.

The kisses are lazy and sleep-pliant at first but pretty soon the slide of their lips turns faster, needier. JJ’s hand roams all over Yuri’s stomach and chest, but always teasingly stops at the waistband of his boxers.

“I wanna touch you,” JJ whispers in between kisses that are bordering on rough.

Yuri hums his consent into the kiss. Now that the panicky stress of the past few days has melted from his limbs and mutual interest has been established, there is no reason to not say _no_ when his body is very clearly letting him know this is more of a _hell yes_ situation. It’s not like he’s a blushing virgin, and besides JJ is already well-acquainted with his body.

Although not in this way.

_How can you be so sure?_ a small voice in his head asks, and Yuri’s brow knits together in mid-kiss.

Even though Yuri is not seventeen anymore, there’s still a certain heaviness in his balls if he goes without release for several days.

It’s been four days and that familiar heaviness is not there. So someone must have taken care of it recently.

Yuri’s eyes fly open at the thought, and he gasps, pushing JJ away from his mouth.

JJ blinks. “Something wrong?”

“Out of curiosity,” Yuri says, looking at JJ’s face intently. “Did you jerk off while you were in my body?”

JJ instantly looks guilty, and Yuri groans, dragging his hand down his face.

“It was once, in the shower,” JJ admits when Yuri glares at him. “I was curious!”

Yuri continues to glare at him.

JJ pouts. “I mean, if that was the only way I would ever get to touch your dick…”

His face looks so miserable for a second that Yuri chuckles and pulls him back into a kiss.

The thought of JJ jerking off while in his body should perhaps be disturbing, but somehow it’s _not_. Actually, in some twisted way, it’s kind of hot. Not that Yuri is going to admit that out loud.

“Show me,” Yuri mumbles against JJ’s mouth. He grabs JJ by the wrist and pushes his hand down, the intent clear. “Show me how you touched my dick.”

JJ lets out a noise that sounds like a growl, and buries his face in the crook of Yuri’s neck again. He bites and licks the skin around Yuri’s collarbone as he pushes the waistband of Yuri’s boxers out of the way and wraps his fingers around his cock.

Yuri’s breath hitches in his throat as JJ starts pumping his hand up and down the length, his thumb sliding along the slit on every downward motion. It’s rough and fast and Yuri feels sweat slicking his skin under the heavy blanket.

Yuri is already getting close, and he’s just about to slap JJ’s hand away when JJ stops and kisses him, all tongue and saliva and open mouths.

JJ pulls back from the kiss, his lips spit-slick, and it should be gross but it’s not. JJ flashes Yuri a grin and ducks his head, crawling under the covers.

JJ makes his way down, and Yuri watches as the human-sized lump under the blanket settles around his crotch area. Even though Yuri knows what to expect, he can’t prevent the embarrassingly loud gasp when JJ licks the underside of his cock and then wraps his lips around the head.

Yuri screws his eyes shut and bites the back of his hand as JJ works his mouth on his cock, first slow and teasing and soon rough and demanding.

JJ moans around Yuri’s cock, and Yuri echoes the moan as the vibrations pass through his body. The suction of JJ’s mouth and the movement of his hand along the shaft are triggering Yuri’s nerve endings in the best way, slowly but surely coaxing him toward orgasm. JJ stops at the head of Yuri’s cock to lap at the precome leaking from the slit, and Yuri thinks his eyes roll so far back in his head that he can see the back of his eye sockets for a second.

JJ shifts under the blanket and the movement around Yuri’s cock goes uncoordinated and sloppy. Yuri frowns at the jerky movement of the blanket. He reaches to pull the blanket off to see that JJ has one hand shoved into his own boxers while he’s sucking Yuri and he’s jerking off at the same time.

Yuri groans and pushes JJ off his dick. “This isn’t a one-man show, you know,” Yuri says as dryly as he can muster while gasping for air. “Leave something for me too.”

JJ looks sheepish.

“Come here,” Yuri says, tugging JJ up and on top of him.

He intends to make a whole show about touching JJ, but he’s already been jerked off and sucked off and there is only so much a man can take before his body is reduced to a sweaty mess that’s screaming for release. So he licks and bites JJ’s neck and shoves a hand between their bodies, grabbing JJ’s cock and giving it an experimental tug.

The reaction is immediate and extremely satisfying.

JJ lets out a loud groan. Then he begins talking. It’s like he’s spilling out words without any conscious thought in between hitched breaths. A lot of it is nonsense praise and gasped moans, but somewhere in between he is thanking his lucky stars because Yuri Plisetsky is touching his dick and apparently JJ can now die a happy man.

Yuri suppresses his chuckle by biting JJ’s neck, hard. It’s bound to leave a mark, but he doesn’t care.

JJ’s hand slides down between them as well, and it feels like there are too many dicks and limbs occupying the same space at once, but then they find a common rhythm and Yuri stops thinking and concentrates on sensations instead. There’s the sensation of a dick that’s not his own, heavy in his hand, while JJ’s hand slides along the length of his dick, thumbing the slit in a way that makes stars dance in Yuri’s peripheral vision. JJ seems to take notice how Yuri’s hips arch off the bed at that, so he keeps doing the same movement with deliberate pressure until Yuri curses and comes, spilling between their bodies.

Yuri’s hand stops on JJ’s cock for two seconds, but then he picks up the pace, determined to make JJ crash and burn like he just did.

JJ’s stubble rubs his neck raw and JJ keeps panting and spewing out words like he’s going to die if he stops talking.

“Oh, so good, Yuri, your hand, and you’re so—gorgeous and, ah, jesus this is—”

Yuri brings his free hand up to JJ’s hair and to pull his head up from the crook of his neck.

“Do you ever stop talking?” Yuri gasps and crashes their lips together.

JJ makes a surprised noise and his hips stutter. That’s the only warning Yuri gets before JJ’s cock shoots warm liquid over Yuri’s knuckles and his stomach.

JJ slumps down on top of Yuri, panting. The weight is unfamiliar but not unwelcome. JJ’s heavy breaths eventually calm down and he rolls off Yuri, falling onto his back.

“Whoa,” JJ mutters.

They look at each other for a moment, smiling. JJ reaches up to stroke his fingers over Yuri’s collarbone and up to his chin. “Um, your neck is all red.”

“You have a hickey on yours,” Yuri counters, turning to his side and rising up on one elbow. “Also, you should call me Yura.”

JJ blinks. “What?”

“You called me Yuri during sex. You should call me Yura,” Yuri explains. His cheeks feel a bit hot so he looks away, eyes circling the hotel room.

“During sex or always?”

Yuri grins. “Always.”

“Okay,” JJ says. “I can do that.”

JJ gets up from the bed and pads to the bathroom with his boxers still hanging halfway down his ass. Yuri looks after him quizzically and wonders if JJ is consciously aware that he gets off on someone forcefully shutting him up.

On the way to the airport, Yuri turns his phone screen away from JJ so he can’t see that Yuri is browsing websites to decide what kind of a gag he’s going to buy for JJ.

It’s going to be a surprise, for whenever they see each other again.

 

 

*

 

They wait for their respective flights in the airport coffeeshop. JJ talks a lot and twitches like he’s nervous about something. If Yuri didn’t know any better, he’d be annoyed about the rambling and the fidgety movements of JJ’s hands. At some point, JJ’s hand lies palm up at the midway point between his and Yuri’s cups on the table. Yuri takes the wordless offer and lowers his fingers to JJ’s hand, brushing his fingertips along the lines of JJ’s palm. The skin feels warm under his touch.

The change in JJ’s posture is visible. He looks relieved, like he wasn’t sure that Yuri would want to hold his hand.

They gather their belongings when it’s time for Yuri to catch a flight to the European side of the Atlantic.

“I’m still wearing your boxers,” JJ points out as they stand at the point where they have to go their separate ways to the flight gates.

Yuri laughs. “You can keep them.”

“Nice.” JJ wiggles his eyebrows like the asshole that he is, and Yuri groans.

“You better not jerk off to my underwear,” Yuri mutters.

“I’d rather jerk off to you in underwear,” JJ remarks. “Or better yet, you in _no_ underwear.”

“You’re gross,” Yuri says, rolling his eyes heavenward. “I, um, I’ll call you when I get home?”

JJ’s smile is wide and toothy. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

Their parting kiss is a chaste press of lips, but it leaves Yuri light-headed as he walks to the gate where his flight departs.

Yuri calls JJ the moment the plane touches the ground in St. Petersburg. He already has a message in his inbox, letting him know JJ has landed safely in Toronto. Yuri doesn’t think before pressing the call button, but even though it must be ass o’clock in Toronto, JJ still answers right away.

“Hey,” Yuri says, feeling awkward.

“Hey,” JJ replies. “So apparently you left kind of a mess in my closet. My mom says all my brand JJ clothes were on the floor.”

Yuri chuckles. “Um, yeah, I was trying to find something that _didn’t_ have your initials on it.”

“You wound me,” JJ declares dramatically.

They keep talking the entire time Yuri walks through the airport. He doesn’t have luggage to pick up, so he walks straight through security and to where Yakov is standing, arms crossed over his chest and waiting for Yuri.

“Okay, my ride is here, gotta go,” Yuri says. “Back to the gulag,” he sighs when he’s sure Yakov can hear his words. Yuri ends the call and smiles widely.

“Surprise, I’m _not_ retiring and moving to Iceland to raise ponies?” he offers.

For some reason, Yakov does not look happy about this.

 

*

 

Later that year, there is an interview with all the skaters training in St. Petersburg.

When asked how Yuri and JJ came to be together, Yuri answers, “Shared traumatic experience.”

JJ elbows him in the ribs, but he’s laughing.

“There were whale penises involved!” Yuri declares, and JJ almost falls off his chair laughing.

Yakov, JJ’s newly assigned coach in St. Petersburg, looks like his fingers are itching from the urge to either pull all his hair out or possibly to strangle Yuri.

Mila cackles. “You two sneaked off on a getaway to Iceland and didn’t tell anybody beforehand. Yakov almost tore out what little is left of his hair because of it. What’s so traumatic about that?”

Yuri looks at JJ and they smile and reply in unison, “Nothing.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this kind-of-cracky, kind-of-not fic that my mind conjured up. I love writing the dynamics between these two. :') Please leave a comment or kudos if you enjoyed this as they make my day!  
> -  
> I mostly reside on [tumblr](https://worldofcopperwings.tumblr.com/), come hit me up. My ask box is always open!  
> -  
> Thanks to my ever-patient beta [thoughtsappear](http://thoughtsappear.tumblr.com/) who also came up with the title. ♥


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